Monday, October 29, 2012

All Politics is Local

        Local politics is often hidden and pushed aside by the craziness of the congressional and presidential elections. However, neighborhoods and communities care immensely about smaller issues that directly affect them, passionately and sometimes violently voicing their opinions and beliefs. For example, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, public school students and their parents are demanding more filling lunches. In Passaic, New Jersey, are revved up over the city's decision to annually charge $40 to $75 for handicapped parking spots in front of homes.
        Why do people get so easily worked up about local politics? The most obvious reason is that these issues are immediate and citizens feel like they can make changes that will directly impact them. Many of these smaller, "pettier" issues, such as legalizing and increasing the limit for backyard chickens are easily overlooked on a global scale, especially with Election Day coming up. However, people are more in touch with local politics, with most people "thinking globally, acting locally."
        More specifics on local political issues can be found in this here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think it's also interesting that as a whole, significantly more citizens vote in the presidential elections than local elections. For most, the local elections determining how many chickens one can have in their backyard are more pertinent to every day life than national elections, yet people seem to care much more about voting for president. It is completely understandable why people would get involved in protests or other local actions because those are the thing directly effecting most people's every day lives.